RBI Allows Uber To Swipe Credit Cards Again

Protesters yelling at a Uber office are reflected in the window of the building at a rally for fair wages Wednesday, April 15, 2015, in Seattle. Across the U.S., fast-food and other low-wage workers are calling for protests for a $15 an hour wage in what organizers are calling the biggest ever mobilization of workers. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

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NEW DELHI -- Uber, the controversial taxi aggregator, has made peace with the Reserve Bank of India and accepted its payment diktat. That means you can now use your credit card to pay for your Uber trip though using it still won’t be as seamless as in, say, the United States.

“Adhering to RBI regulations, there shall be 2 Factor Authentication flow built in to the app and we’ll need you to enter your Online Banking Pin or One-Time Password before we can charge the fare to your card,” said a press statement from the company.

Though the company, when it launched in India, allowed credit cards to be directly used, it faced objections from the RBI that this mode of payment posed several security concerns, after which the company was forced to withdraw the facility last August.

Currently Uber users must preload money into another app called Paytm, but while users can continue to use Paytm, the new credit card facility allows users to bypass this. Those on Android systems would be the first to use the credit card mode of payment in Uber app, with iOS and Windows to soon follow.

This is the second piece of good news for Uber this month, after a recent High Court order set aside a Delhi government ban on Uber’s licence to ply in the capital